


The Luckiest Woman

by Lord_Byron_Mudkippington



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-21 02:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14906525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Byron_Mudkippington/pseuds/Lord_Byron_Mudkippington
Summary: Yoshiko thinks about her relationship with Riko, and how she seems like a good luck charm she never expected to have.





	The Luckiest Woman

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Uncle_Riko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uncle_Riko/gifts).



> Happy birthday to UR, who's an awesome writer and an awesome friend! I did post this on time for their birthday, but not here.

Yoshiko was unlucky. She was sure that she was just born with that curse. It made sense in the context of her fallen angel persona, but even she got tired of tripping over nothing or being subjected to wildly inaccurate weather forecasts all the time.

Recently she had begun to realize how different her life was with Riko in it. There was still a lot of bad luck happening to her, but having Riko with her changed things. Before, when she would trip over the sidewalk and fall flat on her face, she would hold back the tears and pretend it didn't hurt. Ever since she and Riko started dating, however, Riko was always there with band-aids for her scraped-up knees, or a large umbrella because she knew that Yoshiko probably had forgotten hers. There was still a dark cloud of bad luck surrounding her at any given moment, but Riko was like an opposing force of good luck, fighting back against the dark cloud.

When they'd started dating, Yoshiko hadn't noticed this. She'd definitely just taken the fact that Riko made her smile for granted. Eventually she reached an age where she could look back on her life with a certain amount of maturity, and she truly realized the depths of what Riko meant to her. They'd moved from friends to girlfriends, but it hadn't diminished their friendship one bit. It'd also turned Riko into somewhat of a protector, even if Yoshiko was too stubborn to admit it sometimes.

When she'd get sick, she'd try to concoct some kind of black magic to fend off the illness, but it was always Riko who was able to nurse her back to health. If she had ever struggled with one of Aqours' dance moves, she'd bemoan the dark forces at play that kept her feet from their true potential, but Riko would always take time out of her day to help her get the steps down. Back then, she'd been stubborn and wouldn't fully admit that she was allowing Riko to help. Now, she could tell that she really had needed Riko to help her with those things, and more.

There had always been a shell of loneliness that she lived in, whether by chance or by self-infliction. Even when she became friends with the rest of Aqours, she would find herself putting distance between herself and them without even meaning to. Loneliness was just what she'd known for so many years, and it just felt like that was how she was supposed to live. Riko changed that, though. She showed Yoshiko that she could have friends in her life, and that she could be vulnerable without fear of belittlement. That shell had slowly cracked as Riko diligently chipped away at it, until it finally broke and Yoshiko could finally really, truly be herself. She'd never figured out how to thank Riko for showing her that she could expose herself like that and let someone else take care of her when she needed it.

These were some of the thoughts that ran rampant in her mind as she stood in the store at a mall, biting her lower lip nervously with her credit card in one hand and a crumpled-up sheet of paper in the other. She had finally decided to get something special for Riko, and it was important that everything went right. It was serious when she wrote it down rather than just winging it.

She looked up and down the rows of merchandise, staring at all of it with a critical eye. There could be no mistakes made here today. She had confidence that she could pick out something perfect for Riko, but what came after that was what worried her. Knowing her luck, she'd lose it immediately upon purchasing it, or fumble her words beyond comprehension when she finally presented it. She could be quite the mess when it came to romantic gestures.

It was something she wanted to do, though, since it was important that Riko finally learned how much she meant to her. They'd been dating for just about three years, and she had started to feel like she wasn't putting as much into the relationship as she was getting out of it. Riko was such an amazing, beautiful, talented, caring women. She could really go on for a long time with every positive quantifier concerning Riko. She deserved the best, and if she had decided that she wanted to spend her time with Yoshiko, then by the Gods she was going to prove that she was worth it.

Her purchase came in a nice little bag, and she made sure to keep an eye on it as she clutched the thin handles tightly in her hands. She kept stealing furtive glances around the mall, as if someone was going to jump out and try to relieve her of her purchase. That was paranoia, of course, and she ended up at her car unmolested, where she got in and drove home with all of those same thoughts rumbling around in her head.

She'd often wondered what Riko saw in her. Ever since elementary school, her weirdness had turned people off. It kept her from making any friends, at least until high school, when Aqours became a part of her life. It was something she still wasn't used to, even after all these years. She'd never expected that a group of eight very different people would all want to still be friends with her, especially after how weird she always acted around them.

Honestly, she wouldn't be the person she was today if it wasn't for Riko seeing through that persona of hers. It gave her balance in her life, and she would be forever grateful to Riko for being the person to be that provider. Now she was pulling into their parking spot at the apartment they shared, and the nervousness she'd felt earlier started coming back at full force. She still didn't know the perfect time to give Riko the gift.

Hiding the contents of the bag in her pocket, she shoved the now-empty bag in her glove box and went up the stairs to their apartment. She would just have to figure out the perfect time to show Riko what she'd bought.

* * *

There was a harvest moon out that night. It filled up the sky and caught Yoshiko's eye instantly. That was the kind of moon she used to do unholy rituals under back in middle school. At least until the neighbor's dog got loose again and chased her inside. It seemed right that it would show up on the night she decided to talk to Riko about her purchase.

They had just come out of the restaurant where they'd had dinner, and they were heading towards Yoshiko's car. She felt nervous thinking about what she was going to do, and she wondered if Riko could sense it. It felt like there was a big, blinking sign above her head that was shouting to the world her intentions, and it almost made her lose her nerve entirely. When they got in the car, however, she blurted out what she wanted to say before that could happen. "I wanna take you somewhere!"

"Eh?" Riko blinked, bemused. "Where do you want to take me?"

"Uh, it's a secret. Just c'mon, please?" Riko frowned slightly, clearly confused by what Yoshiko was talking about, but eventually she relented and allowed Yoshiko to take her... wherever. Yoshiko sighed in relief, having worried she'd be forced to admit her plans. Before she began driving, she subtly touched her pocket to make sure the desired object was still there. When she felt it, she smiled slightly before driving off into the night.

"So where exactly are we going? We've been driving for awhile." Eventually they had driven long enough that Riko couldn't keep silent any longer. Yoshiko had figured that would happen, and she hoped she could answer without giving everything away.

"We're going to Uchiura." They lived in Tokyo now, as did a good number of the former members of Aqours. Going back to their hometown was often just too out of the way, so unless they were visiting family members they tended to stay in the city. When she glanced over at Riko, she was met with a skeptical look. Whatever Riko was thinking about what they were doing, she didn't know. "It's a surprise."

"Mm..." Riko still seemed skeptical, but she didn't push it anymore, allowing Yoshiko to continue driving in peace. Though the peacefulness was only on the outside. On the inside, she was just about losing her mind. She kept trying to inject positive thoughts into her brain, but they were all immediately swallowed up and disposed of. Her palms were sweaty and shaking.

Finally they entered the boundaries of the quaint, quiet town, and Yoshiko drove on until they were as close to the spot as her car could get. Then she exited the car, with Riko joining her. She felt embraced by her nerves as she led Riko to their final destination, hands firmly in her pockets to make sure she didn't lose her precious purchase.

"Oh, I remember this place." Riko looked around with a fond smile. It was near the riverfront, between the buildings where Riko had been introduced to the dog that Yoshiko temporarily adopted. That hadn't exactly been fun for her at the time, but she could laugh at it with distance between that moment and now. "Why are we here, though?"

"Because I need to ask you something, and it has to be in a really important place." This was it. There was no turning back now. She couldn't wuss out and leave Riko hanging, especially when they came in the same car. "And this place is important. Because it's where I first realized that... that we had some kind of connection. That we were really good friends, you know?" She clasped her hands together nervously. "And eventually more."

"Oh, so that's why." Riko smiled, unaware that there was yet a bit more to this. "Honestly, I felt the same way. To see you taking care of that dog was... different. I hadn't seen you like that before, and it started to draw me into you. More than I could've ever expected." Yoshiko nodded, gulping as she clutched the little box in her pocket.

"I feel the same way, and... and I want this place to be where we become even more than we already are." Pulling the box out of her pocket, Yoshiko sunk down onto one knee, steeling herself to look at up Riko's reaction. Riko's eyes were wide, a hand going to her mouth as she quickly realized what was happening. Now it was definitely too late to back out now.

"Oh my God..." Actually, she _could_ get out of this, but in the worst, most Mari-like way possible: by claiming it was a joke. Even she wouldn't do something like that. Besides, it wasn't a joke. This was actually what she wanted to do, so she just had to say the words she'd been thinking of for quite awhile now.

"Riko, there's so many things that you are to me. You've cared about me more than anybody else has. You pick me up every time I give up. You've made me feel like I'm worthwhile as a person, and it's... it's really hard for me to put into words what that means to me. That's why I'm hoping this will show you what I'm having trouble telling you." With trembling fingers, she pulled open the box, revealing the diamond ring it had been safeguarding. "Riko Sakurauchi, will you marry me?"

"Y-Yes, yes, yes!" Riko stuttered through her tears, having already been nodding her head before Yoshiko had even finished asking. She held out her hand for Yoshiko, letting the tears continue to fall as she gave Yoshiko a big, warm smile. Yoshiko started smiling too, so relieved that she hadn't been rejected. Not that she'd thought she would be, but one could never be too sure. She had started to cry a little as well as she pulled out the ring from its velvet holder. The box accidentally dropped from her hands as she tried to maneuver it out of the way, but she decided to ignore it in order to put the ring on Riko's finger.

"It looks good on you." Yoshiko tried to be suave with her quip, trying to pretend she wasn't crying as well. When she stood up, Riko immediately pulled her into a tight hug, refusing to let her go as she cried her tears of joy openly.

"I love you, Yoshiko. I love you so much." She pulled back to look at Yoshiko, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, then leaned in to seal their engagement with a kiss. Yoshiko held her new fiance tightly and returned the kiss, her previous nerves being burned away with the heat of happiness. She'd finally had the courage to speak her heart, and now they were getting married! In the future, but that was a future she was excited to be a part of. It seemed that her luck was really turning around after all.

Maybe Riko was an actual angel, shining her heavenly light of love to cast away the darkness that was her bad luck. That was the kind of person she wanted to spend her life with. No matter what might happen in her life, Riko would always be there to make her the luckiest woman on the face of the Earth.


End file.
